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Ostoria
The Sub Kingdoms of Ostoria Ostoria spanned almost the entirety of Faerûn from the Cold Lands to the Shaar according to some legends. Only to the Unapproachable East did the giant kingdoms not spread, limited by the ancient primal treeline of the Greater Riildath forest and its fey inhabitants. Each of the individual kingdoms had a variety of various giant types living inside its borders depending on the prevailing environmental conditions in which they dwelled. The royalty and nobility of a kingdom however were all of a single type matching their primordial sire and ruler. Voninheim: When Annam divided Ostoria amongst his sons each son chose a region to govern. Lanaxis was eldest and most powerful and he chose first the cold plains of Vaasa, Damara, and Peluvria which was the capital of Ostoria and the most powerful kingdom of Voninheim. Nedeheim: Obadia chose next and for himself chose the mountainous ranges of what would become the Western Heartlands and named his kingdom Nedeheim. However once the elves worked their magic to create Evermeet the vast mountain ranges that formed the coast of the Western Heartlands sank, leaving only hills and plains behind. Ruanaroch: Nicias and Vilmos both chose to rule over the Anauroch basin from the skies above in massive cloud castles. The land beneath was desolate after the Sarrukh war with the phaerimm and took many hundreds of years before it became an abandoned forested paradise again. At some point during their ruler Nicias and Vilmos had a disagreement and the kingdom split with Nicias remaining in the Anauroch basin and Vilmos moving south over modern day Cormyr and higher into the atmosphere with the storm clouds to prove his superiority over his brother founding the kingdom of Rangjfell. Jothun: Ottar chose next, selecting the frozen lands beyond the Spine of the World Mountains as his home. Once the Great Glacier formed his kingdom was the first to fall as the cold quickly spread to the north pole of Toril Helligheim: Masud chose the fiery mountains of the Moonsea and its sulphurous lake at its centre that would come to be known as the Dragon Sea. Here the landwyrms that became dragons laired most often, and the giants of Helligheim hunted them for sport when the fancy took them. Not realising the danger that laired in their midst. Once Garyx was born he and his progeny dispersed among the mountain ranges of Faerûn where they came into conflict with Ruk and his hill giants, sparking the thousand year war. Darchar: Ruk chose last, being the most dull witted of the brother he did not notice he was given the lesser of the kingdoms to rule. His kingdom consisted of the hilly mountainous region of the Vilhon Reach and eastern Amn with his capital at Grunfesting. When the dragons began to appear they chose to lair in these massive mountain ranges and came into frequent conflict with the giants. Once Garyx deemed his children were strong enough he declared war on Darchar and the rest of Ostori History -31,000 DR: The batrachi, make contact with the primordial Asgorath to aid them in their war with primordial’s native to Abeir-Toril. Asgorath uses his breath weapon to blast the crystal-ice moon Zotha and fires it at the planet’s surface. The ice moon shatters and millions of shards of crystal ice shred Asgorath’s form slaying him instantly. The remains of Zotha’s moon plunge towards Abeir Toril and impact in the centre of the Inner Seas forming the largest inland sea on the planet. Ao shifts Abeir and Toril apart to save the planet from destruction in the war between batrachi and primordial. In doing so Ao shifts Faerie further away from Toril, creatures can no longer merely walk between the two planes in places where the veil between the two worlds is thin. From this moment on Portals are required for transport between the two planes. - The impact of the meteor also shifts the planetary alignment and sends up vast clouds of dust. For the next millennia temperatures around Toril drop considerably which slow the amount of melt water entering the Hordelands basin which accelerates the rate at which that vast wetlands is drying out. - Unique dracoform creatures crawl out of craters across Faerûn where the crystal shards of Zotha covered with Asgorath’s blood struck Toril. These creatures have anywhere between 2 and 20 legs, 1 and 10 heads, winged or wingless, some with breath weapons. These dracoforms quickly spread across Faerûn and multiple. Over a millennia through natural selection and competition of other dracoforms many of these new species die out until a dominant species resembling a land wyrm emerges. -30,000 DR: Annam sires his giant primordial children with Othea and founds Ostoria in their honour. Lanaxis (Stronmaus), Obadai (Skoraeus Stonebones), Ottar (Thrym), Masud (Surtr), Nicias, Vilmos, Dunmore, Arno/Julian, Ruk (Grolantor), Karontor, Hiatea, Iallanis, Memnor. - In the Moonsea, several of the first landwyrms and therefore the most intelligent and powerful of their species assemble at inland sea now known as the Moonsea. There they seek to remake dracoform in the image of their god Asgorath merging examples of all the differing dracoforms remaining and imbuing it with innate magical abilities. Their creation is the first true dragon, a being known as Garyx, scarlet dragon whose colour is so dark he is almost black when viewed from afar. He possess flight, fiery breath, magical powers and immense physical and mental strength. However one of his creator's also tricked the others and imbued him with immense greed and a desire to own and control everything. -28,000 DR: Ostoria reaches its height stretching from the present day Cold Lands to the Vilhon Reach, although no giant dares enter the Greater Riildath forest. - Annam divides Ostoria into sub kingdoms amongst his children. Lanaxis claims the cold plains of Vaasa, Damara, and Peluvria and overall rule of Ostoria although Annam still rules everything he takes a step back from day to day affairs. - Garyx and his dragon children are driven from the Sea of Dragons (later known as the Moonsea) by Annam, who founds the Ostorian subkingdom of Helligheim in the area. Garyx flees to the Vilhon Reach and the dragons multiply. c. –27000 DR: Continuing their work to undermine dragon rule, the Fey open new gates allowing the first elves to immigrate to Toril. These primitive green elves worship the Faerie gods (not the Seldarine, which were unknown at this time). Although most green elves are content to remain in small scattered tribes, one group known as the Ilythiiri negotiates with the dragons and begins to carve out a small kingdom in the south. The great Ilythiiri capital at Atorrnash remains a shining beacon of elf culture for millennia. - The Lythar clan of wild elves enter a portal in the Shaar and appear in the Unapproachable East in the Greater Riildath forest. - Cegliune enters Toril through a portal from Faerie, desperate to escape the shadow of Titania. Arriving in the Unapproachable east she sets out to destroy all that the fey have created on Toril. Cegliune begins searching for disaffected fey and evil creatures of all races. -26000 DR to –25000 DR: Thousand Year War: The immense red dragon Garyx; first of his kind, leads red dragons in battle against the giants of Ostoria. Eventually all of dragonkind is drawn into the conflict, which rages on and off for a thousand years. Upon its conclusion, Ostoria has shrunk to only a shadow of its former self. The Colossal Kingdom now occupies only the northernmost edge of the continent (present-day Great Glacier and the Cold Lands). - The war with dragonkind begins with Grolantor/Ruk who rules the kingdom of Darchar where Garyx and his brood also dwell. The dragons (all red at this moment in time) naturally compete with the hill giants for homes in this territory and so Ruk declares war. His subkingdom of Darchar is the first to fall to the flight of dragons called by Garyx; the first true dragon to be born and therefore the most powerful and ancient in existence. c. –26000 DR: Othea, mother of giantkind, pursues a series of unsatisfying affairs with various powers such as Vaprak, father of the ogre race. - The thousand year war between dragons and the giants of Ostoria begins. - Cegliune encounters the Narathmault and the entrance to the collapsed Sarrukh caverns beneath the Greater Riildath. She encounters the ethereal spirit of Chupoclops and the two evils enter into a pact of mutual aid. - Angered at Othea's betrayal, Annam degenerates the ogres and trolls of Faerun into their current bestial form with a massive cry of rage. A few elder ogres survive by fleeing to other planes or entering into stasis deep beneath the surface to escape the shockwaves. c. –25500 DR: Othea begins an affair with Ulutiu –2550, a minor sea god of the Savage Frontier. The union of Othea and Ulutiu ultimately produces four sons: firbolg, verbeeg, voadkyn, and fomorian. - Ruk; the hill giant son of Annam loses his subkingdom of Ostoria to the flight of Red dragons. For his incompetence and stupidity he is exiled from Ostoria and forced to wander Toril. His radiant (non identical) twin brother Karontor chooses to accompany him and the outcast hill giants in the hope that he will be able to save his brother from his stupidity and anger. - The hill giant son of Annam and his twin brother, and the hill giants flee south into the Riildath forest. There they encounter Cegliune and the desperate primordial giant brothers and Cegliune aid each other in their endeavours. They pollute the hill giant race by mating with Cegliune. The unknown radiant brother works with Cegliune's dark magic abilities to curse the Fomorian and Verbeeg giant kin into their current twisted forms in the hopes of currying favour with the sons of Annam. Instead he himself is cursed by his giant brothers so that his appearance matches his twisted heart and his name is stricken from all written records of the giant realms. - Hags begin to appear in the Greater Riildath forest. The first and most powerful of Cegliune's hag children are fully grown twin girls that quickly take to the arcane arts and soon their abilities begin to rival their mother. - Ruk continues south towards Thay and encounters the remnants of the Okothian Sarrukh, here he pollutes the hill giant race further by entering into experiments with them and mating with twisted serpent creatures. One such by product of this magical experimentation is the minotaur race. - - Xymor; one of the children of Garyx, recognising the extinction of dragons if Garyx pursues his genocidal war with the giants, searches for a means to save the dragons from themselves and Garyx’s madness. He searches for a piece of purity of their progenity; Asgorath. His search takes him to the area that will become the Moonsea and in the depths of the volcanic seas in that area he locates a crystal shard still stained with Asgorath’s blood. Using this crystal shard and a powerful ritual variant used ages ago by Lendys and the other landwyrms, he attempts to merge himself with pieces of Asgorath to make himself closer to the worldshaper, and also to give him the power to create life. Unable to control the powerful ritual, he succeeds in purging himself of almost all his evil nature and is reborn as Bahamut the Platinum Dragon, but these aspects reform next to him into his twin sister Tiamat, anathema to everything he now represents, a vile bloated abomination of multiple colours and draconic heads. The two immediately battle to a stalemate (a battle that continues to this day), eventually Bahamut flees the area. Both Bahamut and Tiamat attract followers among the other dragons and produce various subraces of dragons. -25,400 DR: After 99 years of magical experimentation Cegliune and her twin daughters create the first Night Twist trees using the blood of Chupoclops. The trees are planted in the Riildath forest and begin slaying any being that slumbers nearby with twisted nightmares of their worst fears given form. -25,300 DR: Fey numbers in the lands around modern day The Great Dale begin to dwindle as larger numbers of Night Twists are planted in the forests above. The lesser fey turn to the primordial protectors of the forest for aid but even these great creatures are at a loss as to the source of the deaths. - A conclave is called by all the "lords" of the spirit realms. During the meeting a twisted and evil hag announces herself as the daughter of Cegliune. Concerned that her mother is wary of her growing power she escaped to warn the fey of what Cegliune has done in return for their protection. Secretly this daughter had made a pact with an infernal being of immense power to provide her with power enough to surpass and survive her mother. In return she was to stop the reduction in soul traffic of humanoids in the Riildath (what would normally pass to the outer planes instead is being eaten by Chupoclops). - The primordials and their subjects and the hag princess and her hag rebels march to Narathmault and the Riildath. Casualties are high among the fey and the humanoids as those that sleep are quickly slain. -25,299 DR: The Battle of the Narathmault: The forces of Bheuristay and the spirit realms engage in the caverns beneath Narathmault. The seven primordials that make it to the central chamber die battling Chupoclops who they kill with the last stroke. Cegliune flees leaving her children to disperse after the battle is lost. The Hag Princess leaves for the outer planes with a number of her followers. - Fenmarel Mestarine rewards those of clan Lythar by altering their essence enough to distinguish them from the rest of Araushnee's children, erasing the taint of Lolth from within. From that day forward the lythari are able to take the form of wolves and spread east and west across Faerûn. - Magnar the Bear similarly rewards his humanoid followers for their dedication by fusing them with the spirit of the bear. These bear like people initially choose to defend the caverns beneath Narathmault but soon spread to other lands through the Underdark. - The death of Relkath of the Branches splits his form into several beings each representing an individual portion of the Greater Riildath wood, because of this separation he is now known as Relkath of the infinite branches. Only Relkath of Aglarond and the Woodman of Rashemen survived into the modern era -25100 DR: The war between dragonkind and the giants still rages across Faerun, very slowly the giants have been losing territory, but the numbers of dragons is also starting to dwindle. The younger dragons are not nearly powerful enough to compete against fully grown giants that reach maturity much quicker. The war reaches a stalemate point that threatens both races with destruction. - Othea and Ulutiu plot to remove Annam from Faerûn and allow them to dwell together in peace. For millennia Annam had resisted the pull of godhood because of his lust for life and material plane pleasures. However Othea reasoned to him that if he were to become a god he could save Ostoria and giantking from the dragons. - Othea also hinted to Garyx of Annam’s plan; Garyx desired to end the war quickly for fear of a civil war brewing amongst his own dragonkind between the ever increasing numbers of chromatic and metallic dragons sired by Tiamat and Bahamut; and thus the stage was set for a climactic battle in the Tortured Lands wherein the winner would be elevated to godhood by the adoration of his subjects. For the first time since the war began the two primordials; Annam and Garyx face each other on the field of battle with thousands of their warriors. As the battle approached its Zenith; Annam spied Othea and Ulutiu together smiling in the distance and knew he was betrayed. Annam fled the battle and Garyx and his dragons were left victorious, Annam bore down on Ulutiu and slew him with such a blow that it shattered his floating ziggurat home of Sheol-Div with a great tempest bore from the turbulence of the blow. Ulutiu’s body sank beneath the waters and the Great Glacier was formed. - Awed by the display of such power Annam ascends through the worship of his giant subjects he tricks Othea into bearing his final son and hopeful saviour of Ostoria and giantkind. - The remains of the Sarrukh and the Ba'etith organisation unleash their secret weapon upon the victors of this great battle hoping to end the threat of the dragons after their victory over the giants. A unique dragon like creature named Orslinn is unleashed upon the dragons and Garyx. This monstrous draconic engine of destruction enhanced by Sarrukh magic and grafts fought even the ancient Garyx to a standstill and his massive claws and teeth slew many of the remaining dragons. For a tenday the behemoths battled each other until Garyx disappeared in gouts of flame and electricity from Orslinn's breath. The Sarrukh thought themselves victorious but in truth Garyx ascended to divinity raised by the fervour of his dragon children inspired by such a battle. Although the Sarrukh win the battlefield that day they are too few in number to battle the remaining giants and the growing factions of metallic and chromatic dragons - Such death and destruction of dragonkind on a massive scale inspires belief in the remaining dragons that day to cause the creation of at least two draconic gods of death; one a dragon of pure shadow, another a huge draconic skeleton. Over time these two gods would merge to become the draconic god Null. -25025 DR: With Annam gone and the Great Glacier rapidly expanding the giants quickly lose subkingdom after subkingdom to the dragons. Annam and Garyx battle in the heavens countering each others efforts to provide aid to their children. Soon only Lanaxis’ kingdom was left and even his capital of Voninheim was threated. - Calling an assembly at his winter palace (in modern day Hartsvale), Lanaxis and the primordial children of Annam (except Ruk and Karontor, although some unpolluted hill giant children of Ruk's attend) and their giant children to discuss what is to be done about the Great Glacier and the dragons. Othea forbids any giant to set foot upon the Great Glacier which derail Lanaxis’ plans to save Ostoria. - 25000 DR: Lanaxis poisons Othea however the poison affects all the primordial children of Annam and Othea making the giants mortal. Othea curses Lanaxis and the primordials stating that they can only live forever in her shadow, her form then cracks and becomes brittle and lifeless. - The primordial children of Annam remain for a time each one eventually ascending to godhood as the myth of the disappearance of the children of Annam spreads through giant culture. Only Lanaxis and Arno/Julian remain; Lanaxis because he refuses to abandon Annam’s dream of Ostoria and because he is abandoned by his Titan children for his failure, and Arno/Julian because the ettins are too dull witted to comprehend worship. - After expending their race against the giants, the once dominant red dragon children of Garyx are now so diminished that the metallic and chromatic subraces of Bahamut and Tiamat dominate dragonkind from this time onwards. Category:Kingdoms Category:Giant kingdoms